Location, leadership and a host of other factors combine to make Gainesville and Hall County hospitable for business.

The community’s diversified economic base translates into growth opportunities for businesses in health care, food processing, manufacturing, energy and environmental technologies, and retailing, according to Tim Evans, vice president of economic development for the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce.

“Our business and elected leadership work to create an environment for new and expanded businesses,” Evans said.

There have been many contributing factors to commercial and industrial growth here, he said, “but unified leadership in support of economic development is the one consistent thread that ties together successful development projects,” including Gainesville Business Park, Oakwood South Industrial Park, ProCare Park, Tanners Creek Business Park, and a number of retail developments.

“We were looking for a place where we could be part of a great community that both values businesses and that also has expectations that businesses should be good citizens of that community — a balance not found in many places,” said Mark Taira, CEO of King’s Hawaiian, which opened its new facility in March.

In a deal that closed last year, King’s Hawaiian bought a 115,000-square-foot building from Pattillo Industrial Real Estate for its southeast U.S. bakery. The facility, in Pattillo’s Oakwood South Industrial Park, represents an investment of a reported $50 million, creating 125 new jobs.

“Hall County is a fabulous place and we love it; there’s aloha spirit here!” Taira said. “In particular, for a business of any size that is new to the area, the [state of Georgia’s] Quick Start and Lanier Technical College training programs are absolutely unique.”

One element of Gainesville and the county’s success in attracting businesses is the way private- and public-sector leaders work together to create a climate for growth, according to Pattillo Industrial CEO Larry Callahan.

“People can feel it in the air when they come here,” he said.

Pattillo Industrial has a new, speculative industrial building under way in Gainesville Industrial Park, a venture of the city of Gainesville, Hall County and Pattillo. Groundbreaking on the 77,100-square-foot building comes on the heels of last year’s completion of a 250,000-square-foot facility for ZF Wind Power LLC.

“This is the first new speculative industrial building in Georgia in the past four years, and Gainesville is exactly the right place for it to go,” Callahan said.

“We are very fortunate to be in Gainesville,” said Michael Mansfield, CEO of Mansfield Energy Corp., a holding company for a roster of energy supply, logistics and services businesses that include Mansfield Oil Co., which has been here since 1957.

“We enjoy Lake Lanier, being close to the mountains,” Mansfield said, “and proximity to Atlanta, without actually being in Atlanta.”

“Gainesville is a good place not only for recruiting local talent, but also for recruiting employees from out of state,” Mansfield said, adding that members of this latter group, which includes a large number of IT-related workers, “find northeast Georgia to be a great place to live.”

Mansfield describes Gainesville as “an industry-friendly town.” He credits much of this positive business climate to the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce, “an unusually robust and effective chamber that stays relevant to what is going on.”

A positive business climate is just one of the factors that make Hall County a good location for expanding a manufacturing facility, according to Peter Narreau, president of Bitzer US Inc.

This high-efficiency air conditioning and refrigeration compressor-manufacturer recently broke ground on a new, 95,000-square-foot North American headquarters and production facility on 31 acres in Tanners Creek Business Park in Oakwood.

The $10 million, Pattillo-built structure is going up adjacent to an existing, 45,000-square-foot manufacturing plant that will remain in service, according to Narreau, enabling Bitzer to increase its production capacity and product array to meet growing demand.

Set for completion by the end of this year, the expansion is expected to create approximately 50 jobs.

Other factors that make a Hall County a good place for businesses to locate and grow include competitive taxes and favorable electric-power rates, according to Narreau. At the same time, “Finding good employees is not difficult, and the talent pool is very competitive from a cost/wages standpoint.”

Bitzer’s location in Oakwood works particularly well for the company because of its proximity to the Atlanta metro area, home to many of its customers, Narreau added. The presence of the Port of Savannah is also a big plus, providing Bitzer with a channel for parts coming in from overseas.

“The major benefits of a Hall County location include quality of life, economic growth and a quality work force,” said Barbara Rambo, chief financial officer of ProCare Rx, a national pharmacy benefits manager.

ProCare Rx received a certificate of occupancy in May for its newly constructed headquarters, operations support, and data center in the new, 23-acre ProCare Park corporate campus, located at Interstate 985 at exit 20.

The facility will house approximately 120 Georgia-based ProCare employees, now located in Duluth.

“We like being outside of Atlanta’s sprawl, which makes it a lot easier to get to work in the morning without having to battle traffic,” said Rich Cavagnaro, president of AdEdge Technologies Inc.

This water-treatment solutions and services provider has been located in the Hall County portion of Buford since 2005.

In the past five years, AdEdge’s sales have increased more than 400 percent, and employment has grown from 24 to 40 employees in the past 14 months.

In the past two years, facility space has tripled and, in 2011, 100 percent of manufacturing was completed in-house.